Subscribe to our Email Newsletter

Support Liberty

U.S. Drone Strikes Against American Citizens?

The Question

U.S. drone strikes against American citizens have been in the news for some time time now. Certainly Attorney General Eric Holder's admonition last week that the president has legal authority to order a targeted strike against an American citizen located within the United States has brought the discussion much closer to home. International terrorism, which often has roots or ties to religious fundamentalism, is the likely target of such proposed force. Is this exertion of executive power merely typical of contemporary civil rights & due process, or is it, as Senator Paul suggests, "an affront to the Constitutional due process rights of all Americans."

The U.S. Government has no business killing people without due process. However, the real issue with the use of drones, which is our right to privacy, is largely obscured by the discussion about “killing.”

The threat to Americans is the encroachment of laws, such as the NDAA which could allow innocent citizens to be tagged as terrorists, be stripped of Constitutional rights such as a speedy trial, and be thrown into prison indefinitely without opportunity to be represented by attorneys or to appeal their cases.